Best Buy considers equipping salespeople with tablets

The #1 electronics retailer in America has come up with a plan to provide tablets to some of its sales people on the retail floor, but it won't say what tablet it has in mind.

In fact, it may not even know for sure yet. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Best Buy has denied claims that have been circulating around the Internet suggesting that Best Buy wants to give its employees a bunch of iPads to use while roaming the floor and assisting customers.

However, it said, it is considering the purchase of a small number of devices - likely tablets - to help the sales staff. In the Journal report, a Best Buy representative was quoted as saying, "While we plan in the future to supply each store a limited number of handheld devices to use as sales tools when assisting the consumer, we have not many (sic) any final decision at this time."

Best Buy is the only major retailer to sell all the high-profile tablets, including the iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and Motorola Xoom.

It's not the first to consider a move like this. Apple Store employees already carry around iPads to assist customers with special software created specifically for store staff, and some car dealerships have also equipped their salespeople with iPads.

The Best Buy rep continued, with another typo, saying, "We continue to evaluate all handheld devices and platforms, looing (sic) for the best solution to aid our employees on the floor."

Tablets can be equipped with special point-of-sale software to allow employees to conduct transactions from anywhere in the store, eliminating the need to bring customers to the front register. They could also incorporate inventory information to check whether or not something is in stock.